<p>My 10th grade D is already interested in looking at colleges. She thinks she would like an LAC or at the largest, a mid-sized university, preferably in Central or Eastern time zone.</p>
<p>She is studying Spanish and is planning on adding French to her schedule next year.</p>
<p>Can anyone give us a good rundown of schools known for their foreign language departments?</p>
<p>Middlebury has a very good reputation for foreign languages.</p>
<p>Yes, Middlebury has been the leader in that area for decades.</p>
<p>Thanks to Pye and Orange--but there must be other schools as well.</p>
<p>Any others to recommend?</p>
<p>Most good LACs will have good foreign languages offerings, in particular for languages that are so widely used and taught as Spanish and French. So I would look at other attributes of the college rather than at its reputation for foreign languages. If your D were interested in Chinese or Arabic or Sanskrit, that would be a different matter.</p>
<p>IMHO, colleges that are aligned with these centers should offer good programs, and should be able to provide guidance if contacted.</p>
<p>The link is: <a href="http://nflrc.msu.edu/%5B/url%5D">http://nflrc.msu.edu/</a></p>
<p>Also, I would think that colleges that offer strong International Relations programs would also offer strong foreign language programs.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>Here is a list of the top 10 PhD producers (weighted for size) for 1992-2001:<br>
1) Bryn Mawr<br>
2) Grinnell<br>
3) Reed<br>
4) Kalamazoo<br>
5) Amherst<br>
6) St. John's<br>
7) Bennington<br>
8) Univ of the South<br>
9) Yale<br>
10) Lawrence</p>
<p>This list comes from this posting: <a href="http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html%5B/url%5D">http://web.reed.edu/ir/phd.html</a>
As you can see, there are quality programs at a wide variety of selectivy levels.</p>
<p>Dickinson is big on foreign language and study abroad. Middlebury is deservedly carrying the reputation for immersion experiences.</p>
<p>i believe that this month's college issue of newseek mentions macalister (sp?) in Minneapolis.</p>
<p>Dartmouth is strong in foreign languages uses the Rassias Method of teaching where students have drill every morning in addtion to class. She will also have the opportunity to do a language or foreign study abroad program in her desired language(as early as sophmore year.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Efrandit/%5B/url%5D">http://www.dartmouth.edu/~frandit/</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.dartmouth.edu/%7Espanish/%5B/url%5D">http://www.dartmouth.edu/~spanish/</a></p>
<p>Some other schools to check out for foreign languages: Dickinson in PA, Beloit in Wisconsin, St. Olaf in Minnesota. All three have exceptional foreign language offerings.</p>
<p>Note that some LACs are very good at some foreign languages and not as good at others. Wittenberg, in Springfield, OH, is well known for its programs in Chinese, but not romance languages.</p>
<p>Wisconsin offers the largest number of choices and a huge number of study abroad programs.</p>
<p>Middlebury is possibly one of the best. Also, Concordia. Georgetown for a larger school.<br>
Earlham is also known for foreign languages, albeit -limited in scope-some European and Japanese.</p>
<p>Earlham also now offers arabic.</p>
<p>Swarthmore has a good Chinese language program and I think has Arabic; it's German department is very good. The author Jonathan Franzen majored in German at Swat and then went to Germany on a Fulbright scholarship. Swarthmore's linguistics is good - but I guess you're asking about a foreign language program.</p>
<p>Swarthmore does have an Islamic studies department and they are trying to enhance it along with the Tri College consortium (Haverford, Bryn Mawr).</p>
<p>I think somebody needs to point out that, for the vast majority of students, starting with specfic departments to assemble a basic list of schools is backwards.</p>
<p>In my opinion, you should start with the big picture stuff: location, size, campus culture, etc. Assemble a large working list of schools based on matches for broad characteristics.</p>
<p>THEN, look at the individual schools on your list to see what they offer in areas of special interest, such as language programs. </p>
<p>In other words, use the specific interests to whittle down a list rather than as the primary criteria for college selection.</p>
<p>The truth of the matter is that you have no idea what son or daughter will declare as a major two years from now. So worry about the big stuff first. It will do no good to end up at a school that has a "great language program" if the school is a lousy fit overall.</p>
<p>anyone know if kenyon, bucknell, wesleyan, emory, and/or lehigh have strong language programs?</p>
<p>The big schools generally will have more choices, and if you choose carefully, more electives..</p>
<p>Among the LACs/Ivies, etc, here is a previous post:</p>
<p>One way to get a look at the differences among schools in languages generally speaking is to look at the number of language/literature and area/ethnic studies majors. The data is simply indicative, not conclusive. Just one more thing to add into the hopper. The area/ethnic studies addition is important as there are some schools - Scripps and Mt. Holyoke being good examples -- where the majors are not necessarily literature based - they will have a "French Studies" major, for example, rather than a "French" major built around literature.</p>
<p>Lots of caveats with the data. First of all, it will vary year by year. Secondly a low percentage at a large school may still result in a substantially robust peer group, whereas at a small school, it will not. </p>
<p>If anything, though, the differences in the data likely understate the differences in the schools. Schools with larger numbers of majors likely have an even larger number of minors, or students taking language electives. The number of upper-level offerings will be greater than than the differences in the major percentages, and the sizes of the respective peer groups at each school will vary accordingly.</p>
<p>Anyway, here's some semi-random data as reported in the Common Data Sets. The first number is the percentage of language/literature majors; the second area/ethnic studies majors:</p>
<p>Mt. Holyoke - 3.96/6.85
Macalester - 9.1/3.8
Princeton - 4.3/1.1
Middlebury - 11.0/4.0
Swarthmore - 6.6./1.2
Hamilton - 9.2/3.7
Smith - 9.62/8.59
Williams - 4.0/3.0
Dartmouth - 6.0/2.0
Scripps - 2.9/12.2
Grinnell - 10.05/0
Stanford - 3.5/3.5
Cornell - 2.0/2.0</p>
<p>Small schools (even good LACs) with small numbers of majors likely have fewer foreign language opportunities: fewer profs, fewer electives, no language clubs or foreign film societies, poorer advising for study abroad and fewer people who can share experience of them, less in the way of language tables. The low percentage of majors, coupled with low number of students, coupled with no language requirements (which might result, in upper class years, of their being more elective offerings) is a recipe for mediocre-to-poor language problems. My alma mater Williams is a prime example - they wouldn't lilkely break the top 50.</p>